After YOTA ZS, there were two events on our more or less immediate TODO list—December YOTA Month and the subregional camp, planned for March.
However, before that, there was another youth event in Germany: Carsten, DM9EE, opened his contest station for youngsters to operate during CQWW SSB, as part of YOTA’s Youth Contesting Program. Six youngsters from three countries, some of which have never met before, manned the Multi-Two station for the full 48h of the contest. For those that want to take the chance as well, this year YCP will stop by DP9A during CQWW SSB, and motivated young operators are always sought after!
This year’s callsign for December YOTA Month in Germany was DF0YOTA. Like last year, the callsign was used by youngsters all over Germany, totalling 4453 QSOs. For this year, we hope that we can get both more youngsters on the air as well as more QSOs into the log. Ideally we can get some big station(s) opening their doors for youngsters, but whether we can arrange that remains to be seen.
By far the biggest event though was the subregional camp, taking place in Baunatal in central Germany in March. It took place right next to the DARC headquarters, in DARC’s “amateur radio center”, which consists of a radio station as well as several conference rooms, perfectly suited for format of event that we ran. For this so-called BarCamp, the participants themselves held the workshops. This relieved us from having to acquire workshops, and also fostered contact between the youngsters, most of which have never seen each other before, and also often are the only youngsters as their local club. With over 50 participants from four different countries the camp was a resounding success.
Of the participants at the camp, many met each other again at several events: DARC’s FUNK.TAG in Kassel, the Fichtenfieldday (a field day event mostly targeted at youngsters, which had a lot more actual youngsters this year), as well as the Ham Camp during Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen. Some of the participants also got their license (or upgraded) since the subregional event. However, we do seem to have troubles motivating our youngsters to go to the summer camp in Bulgaria, with only three applicants. Part of this might have do to with summer holidays in Germany (which differ from state to state and are notoriously incompatible with most of Europe), but considering how many youngsters were at the subregional camps (and how many more there are within Germany), that is a disappointingly low interest. We’re happy about any ideas from other countries on how to tackle this issue.
